Simultaneous measurement of strain and temperature by two peanut tapers with embedded fiber Bragg grating

A compact optical fiber sensor for simultaneous measurement of strain and temperature is designed and experimentally investigated. The proposed sensor consists of a two-peanut-taper Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) and in-line embedded fiber Bragg grating (FBG). The sensor at a length of 35 mm presents strain sensitivities 1.07 pm/μe and 0.891 pm/μe, the temperature sensitivities are 55.35 pm/°C and 10.85 pm/°C, for MZI and FBG, respectively. Through tapering the center of the sensor by a fusion splicer, the strain sensitivity of the MZI is improved to 1.93 pm/μe. The resolutions for strain and temperature measurement are ±3.104 μe and ±0.194°C with the wavelength resolution of 5 pm. The experimental results show that the sensor is able to simultaneously measure strain and temperature by sensitivity matrix with advantages such as simple structure, compact size, ease of fabrication, low cost, etc.